Pa. manufacturing employment decline slows

Pennsylvania's manufacturing employment dropped 1.2 percent in the past year, according to a new report, in part due to automation, mergers and outsourcing.

The 2009 Pennsylvania Manufacturers Register, an industrial guide published annually by Manufacturers' News Inc., reported that the commonwealth lost 10,684 manufacturing jobs between May 2007 and May 2008.

That drop is not as sharp as a year ago, when the report found the Keystone State lost 21,449 manufacturing jobs, or 2.3 percent of its employment between May 2006 and May 2007.

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And while manufacturers across the country are still struggling, there may be hope on the horizon, said Tom Dubin, president of the Evanston, Ill.-based Manufacturers' News.

"As wages in developing countries increase and fuel costs cut into freight-sensitive goods, some manufacturers are bringing production back home," Dubin said in a statement.

Pittsburgh has lost about 1,300 manufacturing jobs since May 2007. The 3.5 percent drop in jobs - from 36,176 to 37,488 - mirrored conditions statewide and in the Northeast, the report found.

In a 15-county area around Pittsburgh, manufacturing employment dipped half a percent to 198,145 jobs. The region included Allegheny, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Mifflin, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Industrial jobs were down 2.3 percent, to 51,148 in Philadelphia during the same time period. Philadelphia employs the most manufacturing workers in the state, followed by Pittsburgh, York, and Erie.

Industry employment was down 3 percent in New York; 2 percent in New Jersey; and half a percent in the Maryland-Washington, D.C. region.

The publishing company said Pennsylvania is home to 19,269 manufacturers employing 884,629 workers. The state ranks fifth in the U.S. for manufacturing jobs and plants.